Question

Posted by: francois | 2009/09/24

What to do

Hi CyberShrink

I have no motivation. I am a 5th year student and don' t have the motivation to study. I have tried motivating myself, talking to myself and even telling myself that I should be grateful being able to study and having that opportunity but nothing seems to help!!! This has spilled over into other areas of my life as well and I don' t know what to do.

I can' t see myself studying anything else and at times I love what I' m doing, but the way I' m feeling makes me feel so inadequate and miserable.

Our expert says:

Many of us don't have a motivation specifically to study. Oddly, this seems a problem when we are in situations where we HAVE to study during exams ; and many of us study hapilly and busily when we're doing it entirely for ourselves, even if sometimes studying unorthodox subjects --- look at how some people dig into anime or Marvel Comicx, or whatever, though nobody expects them to do so. I think much of the "motivation" arises (a) from the sense of pressure, of HAVING to do this by next Thursday ) and better study habits and skills and time-tabling can help a lot here ) and (b) by focussing too much on "am I motivated to do this ?" questions about the study stuff itself, rather than looking ahead to WHY you are studying --- to what freedom it will give you to get jobs and a way of life which you presumably DO want. If you don't have a good answer to (b), if you really don't know why you are studying at all, or what it is you want which the quialifications will lead you to, maybe you should see a study counsellor to work out whether you should be stuidying at all, and if so, studying what. Wherever you are studying should have student counsellors available, as well as study skills coaches --- work with these to find answers that suit you

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